Doctorate (PhD)
The Professional Doctorate in Legal Science (Research) combines coursework with a research dissertation to enable advanced study and reflection on practice in the professional field of law. As a doctoral student, you will choose a real-world legal problem to explore as a research project and will be encouraged to use it to draw upon, and extend, your professional experience and expertise in relation to your own workplace, organisation or community.
The UC Faculty of Business, Government and Law has particular teaching and research strengths in the areas of corporate, business and taxation law, although you can choose to explore a subject from across the legal spectrum. You will graduate from the program having made a unique contribution to professional practice in your chosen field and ready to progress your career to the next level. As a Higher Degree by Research (HDR), this course is covered under the Australian Government's Research Training Program (RTP) funding model, which provides a fee offset for domestic students for the standard duration of the course.
Before a candidate is admitted to the Doctor of Legal Science Program, the University must be satisfied that it is able to supervise the candidate's proposed dissertation and that the candidate satisfies the following admission requirements:
- a bachelor's degree in law or an equivalent qualification;
- five years of professional practice in a legal area;
- provides evidence of superior legal professional performance both intellectually and technically;
- provides evidence of capacity for specialised coursework at the postgraduate level; and
- demonstrates capacity to undertake significant research in the proposed doctoral field.